The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne Chapter 191 Discussion

I thought it was a little sad that the highest-liked review here was of a guy who only read up to c3, so I decided to write my own. (the novel was somewhat disappointing early on, but I thought there were no glaring holes later on. It has a bit more depth than the first few chapters might imply.)

I'd like to point out that this novel's got plenty of tropes that you'll definitely know of - MC with bad rep as incompetent but has a secret OP identity, faction wars, snobby nobles vs nice nobles, childhood friends etc. The MC is not particularly interesting character-wise, but you'll see more of his personality come to light as the story continues. The MC himself has a bit of the 'beta' personality, but I like to think of it as non-confrontational, and he's not so much of a doormat that it's annoying.

Short over-exaggerated rant about people complaining MC's being a doormat:

Spoiler

Cheh, how can the MC stand to be insulted when he's actually one of the most powerful people in the world? It's almost like it would ruin the persona he's built for years!

What about when he's in his adventurer identity? How come he's still like that? Oh man, I can't believe there's a guy who actually doesn't want to avoid confrontation! He's powerful! That means he automatically must be exerting dominance, or he's a wimp! No way someone can be trying to settle things in manner in which they acknowledge the other side's perspective or acts humble about things.

Anyway, I actually prefer MCs who stand up for themselves as well, it's just that this doesn't mean that MC's a wimp for avoiding confrontation. Anyway, if you can't stand MC acting like this, then it's a sign this novel's not for you; not everyone has your tastes. There are plenty of novels out there that feature less "doormat-like" MCs, take your pick.

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In actuality, our MC's alt's power level is quite high, but he still has many rules to follow as an adventurer, plus he actually does want to keep it a secret for the time being, so he can't just whip out his other persona to beat up every enemy. This apparently annoys some people.

As for my rating, I thought it wasn't bad enough to warrant a 3, and maybe not quite up to standard for a 4, but I rounded up. It's got many chapters and an alright story, so it's pretty good binge material.

The political intrigue isn't the best (it's pretty shallow really) but it's not wholly unrealistic, and we do get some interesting, although not out-of-the-box creative, interactions. I found that the characters might seem cliche, but they still have a bit of development. Names and chants are a bit... eh, though.

If, within the first 20 chapters or so, you are very annoyed with either Finne or Leo, you might as well drop the novel - people who get annoyed by that trope have low cliche tolerance, usually.

Overall, whether you like it or not depends on whether you can stand this type of protagonist and his slightly dragged-out ploys to make sure no one takes notice of him, and make sure his brother gets the throne.

(Note that the harem is kind of implied - none of the girls have confessed love, either in-story or revealed to readers via thoughts. At least not at c191.)